Yahoo, as well as other sites, are making a good amount of money selling stat-tracker and other resources that are useless without Major League Baseball - I just wouldn't have fun playing Fantasy Fall League, and something tells me the draw to Fantasy Area Football would be nowhere near that of the NFL.

I don't see why MLB and the MLBPA should not get a cut of the action - it is afterall, their service, that draws us to fantasy baseball.

jayman wrote:Yahoo, as well as other sites, are making a good amount of money selling stat-tracker and other resources that are useless without Major League Baseball - I just wouldn't have fun playing Fantasy Fall League, and something tells me the draw to Fantasy Area Football would be nowhere near that of the NFL.

I don't see why MLB and the MLBPA should not get a cut of the action - it is afterall, their service, that draws us to fantasy baseball.

Fact: I would not enjoy baseball or pay to go watch it if it were not for fantasy baseball. I became a baseball fan again after the strike thanks to fantasy baseball. Otherwise I'm not so sure I would have.

I'm on a similar boat with NHL right now. I am not interested anymore and I didn't even play fantasy hockey despite my dominance over the years.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." ~George Carlin

jayman wrote:Yahoo, as well as other sites, are making a good amount of money selling stat-tracker and other resources that are useless without Major League Baseball - I just wouldn't have fun playing Fantasy Fall League, and something tells me the draw to Fantasy Area Football would be nowhere near that of the NFL.

I don't see why MLB and the MLBPA should not get a cut of the action - it is afterall, their service, that draws us to fantasy baseball.

I definitely agree that Yahoo should cough up some money. I remember when Yahoo offered stat tracker for free, but that changed when they saw the boom in people play fantasy sports. My league-mates and I always do a Plus League anyway because the money's nothing to us and we already spend lots of cash on mags or website subscriptions anyway. You had to expect MLB to look into exploiting this eventually with the money some sites are making from this anyway.

Yoda wrote:Fact: I would not enjoy baseball or pay to go watch it if it were not for fantasy baseball. I became a baseball fan again after the strike thanks to fantasy baseball. Otherwise I'm not so sure I would have.

I am in the same boat. I was always a casual fan and became a more active fan once I started playing fantasy baseball.

I agree 100% that MLB should look at online fantasy baseball as a god send.

MLB has grown over a 100 year period. Players have gone on strike. Guys run into walls. Pitchers get wacked by line drives... a lot effort and money has gone into creating MLB. Yahoo comes in, offers a great service that helps the game grow, and make millions, ten upons tens of millions. I just feel MLB should get a cut. Is $2 million too much? I would say that depends on how much Yahoo is making.

jayman wrote:Yahoo, as well as other sites, are making a good amount of money selling stat-tracker and other resources that are useless without Major League Baseball - I just wouldn't have fun playing Fantasy Fall League, and something tells me the draw to Fantasy Area Football would be nowhere near that of the NFL.

I don't see why MLB and the MLBPA should not get a cut of the action - it is afterall, their service, that draws us to fantasy baseball.

Fact: I would not enjoy baseball or pay to go watch it if it were not for fantasy baseball. I became a baseball fan again after the strike thanks to fantasy baseball. Otherwise I'm not so sure I would have.

This is basically the, "Make MP3's free and sharable because they got me interested in the artist" argument. And jayman is right: MLB deserves a cut because people are making profit off of a derivative of their product. I imagine that having a Manny Ramirez lookalike jersey makes you more interested in the Red Sox, but that doesn't mean that the Red Sox and MLB shouldn't get part of the monies collected from the sale.

jayman wrote:Yahoo, as well as other sites, are making a good amount of money selling stat-tracker and other resources that are useless without Major League Baseball - I just wouldn't have fun playing Fantasy Fall League, and something tells me the draw to Fantasy Area Football would be nowhere near that of the NFL.

I don't see why MLB and the MLBPA should not get a cut of the action - it is afterall, their service, that draws us to fantasy baseball.

Fact: I would not enjoy baseball or pay to go watch it if it were not for fantasy baseball. I became a baseball fan again after the strike thanks to fantasy baseball. Otherwise I'm not so sure I would have.

This is basically the, "Make MP3's free and sharable because they got me interested in the artist" argument.

Huh? How does this even compare to the music business?

What MLB is trying to do is charge for somthing that wasn't charged before. It is equivalent to trying to charge people for sending an email.

I still have to pay to goto the games or watch them on TV (indirectly) and play fantasy baseball (indirectly). There are plenty ways around it and if they end up making fans pay for something we didn't before, then they can go pound sand. I'll find another way to do it for free or a small fee.

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." ~George Carlin

jayman wrote:Yahoo, as well as other sites, are making a good amount of money selling stat-tracker and other resources that are useless without Major League Baseball - I just wouldn't have fun playing Fantasy Fall League, and something tells me the draw to Fantasy Area Football would be nowhere near that of the NFL.

I don't see why MLB and the MLBPA should not get a cut of the action - it is afterall, their service, that draws us to fantasy baseball.

Fact: I would not enjoy baseball or pay to go watch it if it were not for fantasy baseball. I became a baseball fan again after the strike thanks to fantasy baseball. Otherwise I'm not so sure I would have.

This is basically the, "Make MP3's free and sharable because they got me interested in the artist" argument.

Huh? How does this even compare to the music business?

What MLB is trying to do is charge for somthing that wasn't charged before. It is equivalent to trying to charge people for sending an email.

Because this is exactly the same structure of argument that people made in defense of Napster. Exactly.

Yoda wrote:I still have to pay to goto the games or watch them on TV (indirectly) and play fantasy baseball (indirectly). There are plenty ways around it and if they end up making fans pay for something we didn't before, then they can go pound sand. I'll find another way to do it for free or a small fee.

And this is exactly what people said about paying for MP3's. Then hello, ITunes.

Sorry, it's not your god-given right to play fantasy sports as a derivative of MLB games. If you want to set up a fantasy league based off of your beer softball league, MLB isn't going to stop you. But they have the right, as the owner of the product, to charge for the usage of a derivative of their product. And if you don't like it, they'll tell you to go pound sand.

Besides, it's not like $2MM per site is really going to change anything other than drive out the fringe league sites.